Labour was accused of creating yet another quango as it announced a bid to ‘streamline’ the state.
First Secretary of State Louise Haigh said she had created three taskforces to deliver the Prime Minister’s promises.
But the Conservative deputy leader Alex Burghart said it was ‘unfortunate’ that she had also announced a ‘massive new quango’ to reform the civil service.
He said that the OneGov Delivery Agency was a ‘step in the wrong direction’ because it would leave ministers responsible but not in charge.
Following her Commons statement on ‘rewiring’ the state, he questioned Ms Haigh on why she had created a new government body.
‘On quangos, we’ve seen over time that they have led to ministers having less agency over important decisions that affect our constituents’ lives,’ he told MPs.
‘So it is unfortunate that the [First Secretary of State] has today announced the creation of a massive new quango in OneGov delivery agency.
‘This is going to be in charge of government recruitment, civil service pensions, shared services, security vetting, and so on.
Louise Haigh pictured alongside Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey at the opening of his new ‘No10 North’ in central Manchester
‘It will oversee considerable public money. It is a step in the wrong direction because ministers will retain responsibility for those services, but they will lose power over them.’
However, Ms Haigh told the Commons that the ‘central civil service is expected to shrink’ under Andy Burnham’s devolution plans.
She said it would mean ‘fewer civil servants at the centre’ despite the Tories claiming that headcount had risen 11,000 since the general election.
She said that she wanted to ‘streamline the state’ and said there was a ‘serious commitment’ within Government to ‘tear away that red tape’.
‘We’ve already been very clear that the central civil service is expected to shrink, that we do want it to be more streamlined, more efficient, and that our commitment to devolution and to rewiring the state absolutely means fewer civil servants at the centre,’ she said.
‘And building the capacity and capability of regional and local government, which has been a huge, huge victim of the decade of austerity and has held back growth in our local economies.’
During the Commons clash, Mr Burghart said he was disappointed that Ms Haigh – Mr Burnham’s Cabinet Office enforcer – had not tried to restrain the Treasury’s power.
He noted that she had previously described Number 11 as ‘imperial’ and said he had hoped that she’d lead the charge to ‘smash the barricades’.
But instead, he said that the ’empire has struck back’ and said the plans for Number 10 North to take charge of growth had been watered down.
‘The real power remains within Number 11 South,’ he added, referring to the Treasury which is under the control of Chancellor John Healey.
‘The Treasury… was the behemoth created in its modern form by Gordon Brown, designed to control Whitehall, designed to reduce department ministers’ authority over their spend and over their decisions,’ he said.
‘So I was genuinely interested to hear (Ms Haigh) say over the summer that the Treasury was an ‘imperial finance department’, and I rather hoped that she was going to lead the charge to smash over the barricades and destroy this terrible imperial power.
‘But instead, it appears that the empire has struck back, because the briefing that we were given initially was that Number 10 North was going to take control of growth.
‘That seems to have been watered down.’
He also demanded to know what ‘powers, levers and budget’ she would have as the head of Number 10 North to increase growth.
Ms Haigh said functions had been moved from the Treasury to Number 10 North, describing it as ‘a little bit of a chip in its empire’.
‘In terms of the new functions of Number 10, we have transferred a number of strategic functions into Number 10 North, including moving local economic growth and devolution strategy from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and local economic growth policy from HM Treasury,’ she said.
In response to Mr Burghart asking how much Number 10 North was costing, she said it had been ‘fully funded within existing Cabinet Office budgets’.
Their exchange took place after Ms Haigh delivered a statement on ‘rewiring the state’, outlining the Government’s plans for devolution, economic growth and resilience.
She announced three taskforces to tackle the cost of living, control over essential services like housing, water, energy and transport, and community renewal.
There is expected to be a continued drive for devolution and she said she would work with regional mayors to deliver the changes.
